A Winter Kiss
by Astronomy Geek
Summary: Oneshot with upcoming sequel. Harry has felt differently towards a certain bookworm. Will he tell her how he feels and seal it with a winter kiss, or lose his big chance? Pairings: HH, RL.


**A/N: Harry Potter is J. K. Rowling's, not mine! I hope you like it; it contains fluff:) Sorry, but this story does not follow with HBP pairings: HH, RL. Please R&R!**

**A/N: I'd like to say thanks to Gwendy 2005, an HHr artist. Anyone as obsessive of Harry/Hermione fanart as me should go to her website, which is at the bottom of the story.**

**A Winter Kiss**

The village of Hogsmead looked just like a wizards' moving Christmas card that December day. Happy Hogwarts students were running around in the bright white snow, leaving footprints behind, while throwing snowballs at their friends. Some were making snowmen off to the side of the road and putting their house scarves around their white bodies where the neck should be.

Students rushed into Honeydukes, eager to get more sugar so they could run around some more. Through one of the windows, you could see Dean bite off his Chocolate Santa's head as he watched Seamus stuff his newly purchased sweets into his already stuffed mouth. He then rushed out with Dean, passing Lavender and Parvati, who were looking at Goyle with similar expressions on their cold faces. Lavender looked in disgust as Goyle sniffed a Cockroach Cluster, but what made Parvati gag was that Goyle actually bit it. Goyle's small eyes then went wide as the flavor touched his tongue, and he started to choke. Then, Malfoy noticed what he was doing, and quickly grabbed Goyle's arm and hurried away from Collin and Dennis Creevey, who were each taking pictures with their black cameras with wide smiles on their faces. Malfoy didn't want to be embarrassed for having a friend that voluntarily ate a Cockroach Cluster.

Malfoy dragged Goyle past Lavender and Parvati, and out of the door. Malfoy, not paying any attention to his friend, was shouting "That picture better not be all around the school, Mudbloods!" to the Creevey's. Then Goyle coughed up the 'sweet' as Malfoy dragged him to the right, not watching where he was going. Malfoy then ran into Dean and Seamus's snowman, causing him to fall and slide on top of the now collapsed snow. Goyle looked down at him with a stupid grin as Malfoy stumbled to his feet, trying to get snow out of his jeans and trying to get untangled from the Gryffindor scarf that was wrapped around his arms. Dean and Seamus were laughing so hard that they had to lean on each other to stay standing.

A few shops away, a group of friends were watching the snowman episode out of the Three Broomstick's window. Harry sprayed his mouthful of Butterbeer on Ron and Luna in front of him when he saw Malfoy collide with the snowman. Ron, Luna, and Hermione then howled with laughter as Harry's face turned red with embarrassment. The four continued laughing as they watched Malfoy walk slowly down the road with his feet spread apart and a pained look on his face; apparently the snow was cold.

Hermione was laughing so much at Malfoy that she suddenly hiccoughed. She then covered her mouth, but the others could still hear them continue. Then all four started to laugh at Hermione, which only caused the hiccoughs to worsen.

Harry stared to his right, at Hermione, with a huge smile on his face, and with his green eyes sparkling lovingly at her through his round glasses. She looked so cute with her hand over her mouth and her eyes sparkling with happiness, and then she would hiccough, causing the two across them to snort with laughter in their Butterbeers. Hermione started to blush as other customers started to look at their table, particularly at her. But, Harry noticed that when they turned around, they had little smiles on their faces.

She then looked to her left to find Harry staring at her. Harry then quickly turned his gaze to the other customers in the cozy pub. He heard her hiccough and couldn't help but smile again.

Harry then felt Luna looking at him. She looked at him with her owl-like gaze (wide eyes and not blinking) and he stared back with confused eyes. She looked at him, and then at Hermione, who had stopped hiccoughing and was staring out of the window, with her blush still present.

Luna then pushed her wooden chair back and got up from their table by the window, while Ron looked up at her with confused, sapphire eyes.

"Come on, Ronald," she said, pulling on the sleeve of his robe, "We need to go find Ginny."

"Err…no we don't," he said.

"Err…yes we do," she said firmly, and pulled harder on his sleeve. Ron's chair tipped to the side Luna was tugging, and he gripped the table for balance as it landed on all four of its legs again. Ron then got up, and looked at Luna with frightened eyes.

"Sorry, we need to go meet Ginny at the Hogshead. You two could stay here; she just wanted us," Luna then dragged Ron away towards the door. Harry and Hermione turned in their chairs to look at their two friends. They could see Ron looking back with a sparkle in his eyes as Luna walked between the wooden tables, dragging him. After Luna closed the door after Ron, Harry felt heat rising to his face.

He slowly turned back around in his seat, and concentrated on his bottle of Butterbeer. He was now alone, sitting at the same table with Hermione. He picked up his bottle and took a swig, looking around the crowded pub as if the chatting people were interesting to him. He then put his Butterbeer back down, and when he looked at it, he could see Hermione's reflection on the right side of the bottle; she was looking at him. Harry tried to make his heart stop beating so loud and fast, but he couldn't calm down with her one foot away from him.

Hermione then looked away from Harry quickly after spotting her reflection on his bottle. Harry continued to stare at it, looking at Hermione's beautiful reflection. Her hair was tied back with a blue ribbon, allowing Harry to be able to see her face without disturbance. Hermione didn't know it, but she was beautiful and perfect to him in every way. She was looking out of the window; Harry could see her chocolate eyes searching the students, trying to find a familiar face.

Harry knew that she was looking at him and it had embarrassed her. Harry felt a big smile wanting to spread on his face, but he only allowed a little of it to show. _She looked at me,_ thought Harry as if that were something to marvel at. _She looked at me! Oh, Merlin; she's blushing! I think she likes me! Oh, thank you, Merlin!_ Harry wasn't positive that she liked him, but the possibility made him feel happy.

"Err…Hermione," said Harry hesitantly. Hermione looked at him, which made Harry feel a bit faint.

"Um…do you want to get outta here?" Harry asked. Hermione nodded, and they both pushed their chairs back. They exited out onto the snow-covered street, and saw a group of students having a snowball fight. Harry watched as Lavender through one at Dean while he was bent over, getting some more snow. Dean lost his balance, and fell on his hands and knees, while Lavender laughed. Dean got up with a fist-full of snow, and ran towards her.

Harry smiled as Dean rubbed into her hair, but not too hard. When Dean and Lavender both stopped laughing, they looked into the others' eyes, but quickly looked away. _Oh Merlin, I hope I'm not that obvious,_ thought Harry, looking at the embarrassed two.

Harry then noticed Seamus throw a snowball at…

"Ginny?" said Harry. Indeed, Ginny was playing with Seamus, and neither Ron, nor Luna was present. _Hmm…I wonder what she did with Ron and Luna. What about the Hogshead?_ thought Harry. After watching the students slowly get covered with snow, Harry broke their silence.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" asked Harry, looking pointedly to the right, opposite from the flying snowballs.

"Sure," said Hermione, wrapping her jacket tighter around her shoulders. Harry quickly took off his own coat and draped it around her small shoulders. Hermione smiled up at Harry, whose face was only a little more than a foot above her own. Harry forced a quick smile down to her, while his heart began to beat faster. _She's really close…,_ thought Harry, looking down into her pretty face.

Harry then turned his head back to the road, and began to walk. After a couple of strides, Harry heard Hermione jog up to him. _Why wasn't she walking with me? Was she expecting..., _after that thought, Harry mentally kicked himself; hard. He wanted to…do that, but he didn't.

They walked in silence down the road, away from the majority of people. They felt embarrassed, yet happy to have the others' company, but they didn't know what to do or talk about. Even though Harry wasn't wearing his coat, he wasn't cold; his fast-beating heart kept him warm.

Harry then looked down at Hermione. She was looking down at the snow; her eyes unfocused. Harry wondered if he had hurt Hermione by…not doing what he, and that she wanted. They had past the Hogshead and were now almost to the little houses outside of the village when Harry spoke.

"Hermione, what's wrong?" questioned Harry innocently.

Hermione looked up at him, quickly putting on a smile for him.

"It's nothing Harry," she said, but the reply had little confidence in it.

"You were never a good liar," Harry chuckled softly, "'Cause you're too used to tell the truth," he mumbled. Hermione looked back down at the snow; she was trying to hide the little blush that was creeping its way up to her face.

"Is…" Harry started. He continued slowly, trying to find the right words, "Is it something that I could help you with?"

Hermione looked up at him again. Harry looked back at her to see that her eyes were sparkling with tears, and that one had already run halfway down her face. Harry looked at them frighteningly; he didn't mean to make her sad.

"Hermione, what's wrong" Harry repeated, gently wiping the tear away with his thumb. When he touched her cheek he felt a shiver shoot up his arm. With his thumb still on her cheek, he looked closely at her beautiful eyes. He could see her eyes search his while the tears slipped down. He didn't want to move; he just wanted to look, and possible look closer.

Not listening to the little voice in his head, "Don't do it; she's your best friend! It could ruin your whole relationship!" he bent his head forward. He took a step closer and his hand slithered down her cheek, past her neck, and rested on her shoulder. His other hand slowly reached up to her other shoulder; not once did her look away from her eyes. He felt warmth under his hands that could have melted Harry in the frosty weather, but he focused on her face. Harry could hear Hermione's breath quicken and could feel his heart pounding in his chest. Harry then slowly moved closer, and kissed her. He closed his eyes, and he could feel Hermione's lips rest on his. He held her closely and his heart melted from her touch.

Harry then pulled away from the little kiss and opened his eyes. Hermione looked up at him; her eyes were sparkling with happy tears. Then a cute smile spread onto her face as a tear slipped down her face. Harry felt light as air as he wiped it away; his heart finally began to slow down.

"Is it something I could help you with?" Harry whispered, resting his forehead against Hermione's. Hermione laughed quietly, looking up into Harry's green eyes.

"I didn't think that you would ever like me," she whispered back.

"This should tell you how I feel," Harry said. He then released her shoulders and wrapped his hands around her. He kissed her again, as her arms reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Awww," said Luna, who was looking at them from around the corner of the Hogshead.

"Nice touch, mate," whispered Ron behind Luna; he was watching Harry spinning Hermione around as she laughed and hung onto his neck; they were too busy having fun to notice them.

"I just hope we don't have help them with their first date," whispered Luna, looking at the two talking.

"Don't need to worry," Ron said quietly with an Extendable Ear stuck in his ear; the other end was pointed toward Harry and Hermione.

"He's talking about a surprise tonight…and I'm going to help," said Ron. Luna looked up at him with raised eyebrows. Ron then thought about what he had repeated.

"What!" he hissed. Luna rolled her eye, sighed, and mumbled about a, "five second delay".

"Well, he'll probably tell you tonight," was all Luna could think of. She then leaned forward, against the wooden side of the Hogshead, looking at the happy couple with a little smile on her face as Ron tried to think of how he could help with Harry's date with Hermione.

**Fin**

**A/N: I felt that I should make this a one shot, but if you liked it don't worry; I'll make a sequel! It'll be called **A Late Night Date** if anyone wants to know, but it won't come for at least a few more days now—I think; depends if I'm bored soon. :) **

**A/N: Gwendy 2005 has _amazing_** **Harmony fan art! Check her out at **quillsnspills. 


End file.
